As a changer, we must dare to make decisions that are contrary to the industry trend.
Editor’s note: This article is from WeChat public account “deep” (ID: deep -echo), author Zhao Yu.
Core Points
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The beginning of the crisis at the beginning of Gerstner’s appointment, maintaining the integrity of IBM’s corporate giant is an important step.
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Another key option for IBM is to transform from a hardware manufacturer to a service provider.
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Financial hemostasis and principled leadership reinvented IBM in terms of both business fundamentals and corporate culture.
In today’s advocating lean entrepreneurship and emphasizing agile thinking, there seems to be a “axiom” in many people’s subconscious minds, that is, “small” is “good”, while “big” is “bloated” Various negative labels such as “slowness” are connected together.
In this mindset, small companies are agile, entrepreneurial, responsive, and efficient, while large companies are slow, bureaucratic, unresponsive, and inefficient.
Gustner, who used to be CEO of IBM, has the opposite idea.
He said, “I have never seen a small company that is unwilling to grow into a big company. I have never seen a small company that is not a big company’s research and marketing budget, or a large company salesperson. The scale and scope of influence.”
Guo Shina, who served as CEO of IBM for 9 years
In the eyes of Gerstner, big, very important. becauseThe division of IBM’s various divisions and their respective political situation is already very obvious.
For example, outside the US, IBM also operates in more than 160 countries around the world, and each country has its own independent system. In actual work, other IBM employees must obtain the consent of the other party to enter the jurisdiction of another country manager. In Europe alone, IBM has 142 different financial systems, and information about customers cannot be communicated across the company. IBM employees belong to the local divisions first, and then belong to IBM.
In addition, IBM’s external brand display has also fallen into chaos. Due to the company’s separation trend at the time, almost every branch of IBM set up its own advertising department and hired different advertising agencies. In 1993, IBM had more than 70 advertising agencies, each of which was independent, without any coordination mechanism. In the same industry trade magazine, there are even 18 different versions of IBM ads, which are designed, used, and even labeled.
Gusner, who sees this phenomenon, is deeply aware of the need for change. As a result, he believes that “the unique competitive advantage of IBM is the ability to integrate all the parts of computer products for customers”, he made himself think that during his tenure as CEO of IBM, even during his entire career. The most important decision – to maintain the integrity of IBM.
In 1995, Gerstner withstood the pressure from the bottom, and divided IBM into 12 groups based on customers, including 11 industry groups (for customers in banking, government, insurance, etc.) and 1 A group that covers SMEs. At the company level, Gerstner assigned financial accountants to the 12 groups and announced that the group will be fully responsible for all budget and personnel arrangements.
In addition, Gerstner has also integrated all of IBM’s decentralized advertising divisions—not only in the United States, but also in the IBM advertising divisions around the world, hiring an advertising agency to represent IBM. Advertising business. This approach also conveys an important message to the company’s employees and the outside world: IBM is global, and IBM will be firmly united to become a world-class integrator.
Transfer from production hardware to service
In addition to clarifying IBM’s position as an industry integrator, Gerstner made another important strategic decision for IBM to clarify IBM’s business direction from manufacturing hardware to providing services.
The Internet revolution of the early 1990s made many successful companies, such as PC makers like Dell and Compaq. Microsoft, which controls the Windows desktop operating system, and Intel, which controls the microprocessor almost, are collectively called “Winte.”Health? ” src=”https://pic.36krcnd.com/201910/20232158/5c3y2x1f06oncw3g!1200″ data-img-size-val=”720,480″>
When Gerstner left the company in 2003, IBM has become the leader in IT services, hardware, enterprise software (excluding personal computers), and custom design and high-performance computer chips. The number of employees in IBM has increased by about 100,000. As the stock has been split, the stock has also increased by 800%. Including innovation, IBM also ushered in a new golden age – the US patents it won in the past nine years ranked first in the industry.
IBM giant elephant finally began to dance, and even reproduce its glory in the heyday, and Gerstner’s personal leadership charm has also been recognized by IBM and the outside world.
In the course of Gerstner’s leadership of IBM’s elephant dance, many of his decisions were contrary to the industry trend at the time, but more in line with IBM’s own competitive advantage and the customer demand that was later tested by the market. . Being able to choose not to follow is also one of the most important qualities of a great manager.